Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Believe it or not, I am already into week 3 of my student teaching experience! Here is what I have to say so far:

1. My cooperating teacher (CT) is AMAZING. She is so patient, helpful, kind, easy to talk to and open to welcoming any and all of my ideas. She is fabulous.

2. My students are the sweetest. There are 15 (yes, 15!!) little ones and they are all so sweet and special in their own ways! I have loved getting to know them the past couple of weeks and they have become comfortable with me being there now. One student said on the third day, "Ms. Ryan!? You're still visiting?!" Haha! I think they understand now that I will be there until Thanksgiving! :)

3. Teaching is tiring, messy, sometimes frustrating, chaotic and crazy...but it is SO for me. I have been having so much fun and I am excited to continue on in this process.

Now, you may be thinking...shouldn't you be in school right now and not blogging?? Well, that's the other side of teaching. It's full of germs ;) I have had a nasty, nasty strep bug since Friday afternoon (my CT was out on Thursday and Friday with it) and I am still recovering and gaining back energy. However, two doctor visits, two prescriptions and lots of sleep later...I think I should be ready to go on Wednesday! :)

Friday is my first official observation appointment. My cooperating supervisor, from my college, is coming to observe me teach Morning Meeting. Morning Meeting is a HUGE part of our day in first grade. I have had a great time planning greetings, sharing topics, activities and messages for my students! Anyone have any great MM resources to share? I have gone through The Morning Meeting book several times - it's great! - but would love some more ideas to establish a wide variety of choices when I'm planning.

Other than Morning Meeting, I have started taking over our whole group math piece (not small groups) and I also planned an Author Study unit on Tomie dePaola! I will have to get that started when I get back tomorrow. I had intended on starting on Monday, which was his birthday, but that obviously didn't happen. Next week I will start teaching science! YAY!